Sony's 10-inch Digital Paper notepad is available for preorder.
SonySony once made E Ink e-readers. Now it makes very slim Digital Paper notepads with flexible E Ink displays that can be used to read e-books but are primarily designed to store documents and PDF files that you can mark up with a stylus.
Last year, we got the Digital Paper 13.3-inch ($700) or DPT-RP1. This year it's a 10.3-inch version, the DPT-CP1, which costs $600 and is available now for preorder. (There's no word yet on international pricing but we'll add it as soon as we get it).
This is obviously something of a high-priced niche product, but it's good that Sony's brought out a more compact version that's a little easier to carry around. The 13.3-inch model weighs 12.3 oz or 349g while this new model weighs 8.5 oz or 240g, so it's about 25 percent lighter.
Both Digital Paper notepads feature high-resolution E Ink capacitive touch displays and come with 16GB of memory, Wi-Fi and a stylus, though no cover.
With the release of the 10.3-inch model Sony's also announced some key feature enhancements to both models. Here's the quick rundown of the new features, according to Sony.
- Sony Digital Paper Mobile Application: New companion app for Android and iOS for easier transfer of documents, forms and notes.
- Screen Capture/Display Output Mode: Connect via PC or Mac to a projector and display the contents on the Digital Paper screen to a larger audience, including real-time handwriting and mark-up.
- Interactive PDF and Smart Forms: Populate forms using drop-down menus, check boxes and radio buttons for structured data capture.
- Page Jump: Enter a page number and go directly to that specific page.
- Pan and Zoom: Move the display area after a page or portion of the page has been enlarged.
- Automatic Page Rotation: Each page of a document, book or article is shown based on its aspect ratio to optimize the reading experience.
- Page Thumbnails Mode: View up to 16 pages at one time, including the page numbers of a document, book or article.
